waffles or biscuits?

So if you take canned biscuits

and cook them in the waffle iron,  

are they waffles or biscuits?

It doesn't really matter, because they were mighty tasty!  I saw this on Pinterest and just had to try for myself. 

Yep.  

It works.

pins & ziti

Saw this one on pinterest and had to share...how genious!?!?

 

Baked Ziti

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

1 jar (28 oz) pasta sauce

1 ½ c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Ricotta cheese

5 c. cooked ziti

¼ c. grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Brown meat and drain.  Add pasta sauce, 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and ricotta cheese.  Combine with pasta and spoon into 1-quart shallow baking dish.  Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot.

This is really yummy and easy!  I also use my Chef Paul's Pizza & Pasta Magic seasoning!

lulu's acorns

My mom (aka LuLu) had a few fun activities for Addi to help her with to prepare for Thanksgiving.  

Addi loved helping her make acorns out of nutella, donut holes, chocolate sprinkles and pretzel sticks. 

peanut butter chocolate bars

Ingredients:

1 (18.25) package plain yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 eggs

1 (12 oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup coconut (optional...my sister did not like the texture of it in there)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Combine cake mix, melted butter, peanut butter, and eggs in a large bowl using a mixer or spoon. Press this into a 9X13 pan reserving 1 1/2 cup of the mixture to crumble on top.  In a small pot, melt chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and coconut.  Spread chocolate mixture over the mixture pressed in the pan and then crumble the 1 1/2 cups of reserved cake mixture on top evenly.  Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

crockpot honey sauced chicken

Ingredients:

3/4 pound chicken (of your choice)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/8 cup chopped onion (or 1/16 cup onion flakes)

1/8 cup ketchup

1 Tbs. vegetable oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Directions:

Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper, put into crock pot. In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic and pepper flakes. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 3 hours or on high 1 1/2 hours. Chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce. Serve over rice or noodles.

To bake chicken as a 30 minute meal:

Dice chicken and season both sides with salt and pepper, place in 8x8 pan. Pour sauce over chicken and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes.

I found this on Pinterest and I've made it a few times now.  Addi loves the Honey Seared Chicken from Pei Wei and this is similar...not the same, but pretty close.  I haven't made mine in the crockpot yet but it's good baked in the oven.

new orleans shrimp toss

Ingredients:

1 lb. large shrimp, shelled and deveined

2 T. vegetable oil

2 T. lemon juice

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 t. Cajun seasoning

½ c. chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, chopped

½ can cream of shrimp

½ c. milk

1 t. paprika

cornbread

Directions:

Mix shrimp, 1 T. oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire and Cajun seasoning.  Heat remaining oil in skillet.  Add onion and garlic and cook until tender.  Add soup, milk and paprika.  Heat to a boil.  Add shrimp mixture.  Cover and cook over low heat for 5 minutes or until shrimp is done.  Serve over cornbread.

pumpkin funfetti cupcakes

So I saw this recipe on Pinterest and it was too easy not to try!

1 box funfetti cake mix

1 can pumpkin

that's it.

Mix it together and don't forget the funfetti sprinkles!

Is it good?

Yep!  She's going back for seconds!

and thirds!

I used my cookie scoop and put 2 scoops in each baking cup.

They didn't really fill out the baking cups and looked more like drop biscuits.  Oh well. They were still yummy!

I had regular icing for them but since the surfaces were so uneven I really didn't want to use them.  I noticed on the wrapper of the Pillsbury Funfetti icing it said to look under the wrapper for more icing ideas.  

Did you know that you can melt icing down and use it as a glaze?

I had no idea!  Just put some in a bowl and microwave for about 20 seconds and drizzle with a spoon.  Amazing.

toasted pumpkin seeds

The  best part of carving pumpkins is toasting the seeds, right?

Ingredients:

1 c. pumpkin seeds

1 T. olive oil

1 t. Lowry's Seasoned Salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.  Combine ingredients and spread seeds in a single layer on a cookie sheet.  Bake for about 30 minutes.  Once cooled they will store in an air-tight container for several day, but they're best right out of the oven!

crockpot applesauce

Ingredients:

8 medium red apples

1 c. water

½ c. sugar

1 t. cinnamon

Directions:

Peel and core apples.  Cut into bitesize chunks.  Place apples, water, sugar and cinnamon in a Crockpot and set on high.  Cover with lid.  Once the apples are soft and musy, use a potato masher to smash them.  After a couple hours of cooking, add a little more sugar.  Keep mashing every so often until apples are desired consistency.

Every fall we get on a Honeycrisp Apple kick.  I just stocked up at the store so that's what we used in our applesauce. 

Addi loved the thought of us making the Applesauce.  I peeled the apples but let her do everything else and she was so proud when it was ready! 

I don't even like applesauce and even I thought this was delicious!  I liked it warm...it basically tasted like pie filling.  We will definitely be making this again! 

honey sauced chicken

Ingredients:

3/4 lbs. chicken (of your choice)

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. black pepper

1/2 c. honey

1/4 c. soy sauce

1/8 c. chopped onion (or 1/16 cup onion flakes)

1/8 c. ketchup

1 T. vegetable oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 t. red pepper flakes

Directions:

Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper, put into crock pot. In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic and pepper flakes. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 3 hours or on high 1 1/2 hours. Cut chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce. Serve over rice or noodles.

To bake chicken as a 30 minute meal:

Dice chicken and season both sides with salt and pepper, place in 8x8 pan. Pour sauce over chicken and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes.

This meal was a hit at our house!  Addi LOVES Honey Seared Chicken from Pei Wei and this was very similar.  I made mine in the oven but I'm sure the crock pot is just as good!

sour cream chicken

Ingredients:

2 lbs. chicken breasts or tenders

1 1/2 c. seasoned breadcrumbs

1 c. sour cream

Salt & pepper to taste

Garlic powder

1/2 c. unsalted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lay the chicken close together on a foil lined baking sheet.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Coat with a thick layer of sour cream.  Top that with the seasoned breadcrumbs and then dot with the butter.  Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 35 minutes for chicken tenders or up to an hour for chicken breasts.  Its ready when the chicken is cooked through and the breadcrumbs are nicely browned. 

pbj bars

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

Ingredients

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups (18 ounces) creamy peanut butter (recommended: Skippy)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups (18 ounces) raspberry jam or other jam
2/3 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared cake pan and spread over the bottom with a knife or offset spatula. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; it will spread in the oven. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.

Look at all this gooey yumminess!!!



upside down cinnamon apple coffee cake

I saw this on a blog and just had to try it!  We've been on a huge cinnamon roll kick at our house lately so I knew we'd definitley all enjoy this!

Upside Down Cinnamon Apple Coffee Cake
Ingredients:
1 can apple pie filling
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 tube cinnamon rolls
2 t. butter, melted
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together apple pie filling and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.  Spread a thin layer of the filling onto the bottom of a well greased, pie pan. Set the remaining filling aside. Separate the cinnamon roll dough and cut each roll into quarters. Place the quartered rolls into a large bowl and add remaining apple pie filling. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter and brown sugar. Mix well and add to the cinnamon roll/apple filling mixture. Toss gently to combine. Spoon the cinnamon roll mixture over the layer of apples in the pie pan. Bake for about 28-32 minutes or until a deep, golden brown. Cool for about 5 minutes and invert onto a serving platter. Microwave frosting for about 10-15 seconds. Drizzle over the warm coffee cake.

I have a few additions of my own to make to the baking directions.  My cinnamon rolls were still gooey after the 32 minutes, but the top was really golden brown.  Next time I will cover with foil and bake for a while and then uncover to finish baking.  Also, I didn't invert mine onto a plate, I just drizzled the icing over the cinnamon rolls still in the pie plate.  It was really yummy and I will definitley make it again!!

cashew chicken

I saw this very easy recipe on a blog recently and decided to make it last week.  It was a hit!!  Scott loved it, Addi ate every single bite and I really liked it too!! I will definitley be making this again very soon!!

The key ingredient: General Tso Sauce.  I could only find the Target brand and I looked at several different stores.  I guess there is a name brand also, but this was really good so we'll stick with it!

Cashew Chicken

Ingredients:
General Tso Sauce
Chicken breasts
Cashews
Garlic
Olive oil

Directions:
Heat oil and garlic in a pan.  Add diced chicken and cook until no longer pink.  Add General Tso sauce and cashews.  Simmer for about 15 minutes.  Serve over rice.

Seriously, it doesn't get much easier than that!  I served with edamame.  Next time I think I'll add some peppers to my chicken mixture but other than that, it got two thumbs up from all of us!!

snowed in: day 1

Oklahoma had a HUGE snow storm and we were snowed in today!  Scott made it to work for a little while, but thankfully came home early.  Addi and I didn't leave the house at all...we didn't even go outside!  There are snow drifts all around our house that are several feet deep and the windchill is in -14 right now.  Hopefully the wind will die down tomorrow so we can at least go play for a few minutes. 

We played just about everything I could come up with and then I got creative.  I pulled out a huge piece of butcher paper and let Addi go to town coloring it.  My original plan was to have her lay on it so I could trace her outline, but she didn't think that was a very good idea.  She had the entire piece of paper to color on and she just used the little part right in front of her.  Oh well!

Then we rolled up her sleeves and put her slick apron on.  I filled up the sink with soapy warm water and I kid you not, she played for over an hour!! I had to refill the sink twice with warm water because it kept getting too cold.  She had a ball with the different cups and scrub brushes I gave her! 

She finally decided she was hungry for lunch and that it was time to finish up, but told me that she wanted to do it again tomorrow.  No problem Addi.  I promise!

That was a super easy way for her to play.  It was a little wet and messy, but I just threw the multiple towels in the washer when we were through.

Once Scott made it home, we sent him out for a huge bowl of snow so we could make snow ice cream!

Snow Ice Cream

1 gallon snow 

1 c. sugar 

1 T. vanilla 

2 c. milk 

Mix it up and enjoy!

YUMMY! 

The University is closed again tomorrow and so is Addi's school.  I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring, but I'm sure we'll have fun!

Stay warm, wherever you are!